The Big Smoke: Berlin Day 1 (25 Sep 2013)

We were rather sad to leave Weimar. It’s a place we’d happily return to visit … to see the places we didn’t see, to revisit the ones we did, and to stay at our lovely Pension am Kirschberg with its cheerful breakfast room and friendly owner Bärbel (call me Barbara). In our posts, we’ve talked mostly about Weimar’s culture in relation to the arts and letters, but it’s significant historically too, including, in modern times, the aspirational Weimar Republic, about which Sue learnt at school, and the atrocious Buchenwald Concentration Camp (located a few kilometres from the centre).

Anyhow, leave we did. It was a pretty short train trip to Berlin – about 2.5 hours – but the time seemed to go even faster when four Americans of similar age joined our “dog box”. They were from St Paul, as in Minneapolis-St Paul, and were retired computer professional, lawyer, nurse and physician. We had a pleasant time chatting about our German travel experiences.

Arrival in Berlin

Our arrival in Berlin went pretty much according to plan. We had to catch an S-train and then a U-train to Prenzlauer Berg where we’d booked an apartment through air bnb. We had a minor miscommunication regarding the key due to an SMS failure but it was resolved pretty quickly and we were in our apartment by 3pm. It’s a nice little two room plus kitchen and bathroom apartment in what Sue would call shabby chic style. Prenzlauer Berg is apparently a hip part of town, so we of course slot right in!!

Our host Martin turned up at 5pm with sheets and towels, and seemed a very nice fellow. We expect to be comfortable here – and are only 2 mins from a U-station on a convenient line.

We looked forward to using the shower which, among other things, has an in-built radio. And how great, of course, to have a washer-dryer. No more waiting-time at laundromats for us!

Dining with locals

We were invited to dinner that night at the home of Werner, the friend/partner of Sue’s sister-in-law Helen’s German friend, Caroline. Got that? We were told he wanted to try out his new oven. That sounded interesting. So, having bought some wine and chocolates at local shops, knowing nothing about their quality, we caught our U-train to a station near him and walked to his place from there. It was all pretty straightforward. When we got there we discovered that Caroline was running late as her daughter had a dentist check-up.

Werner, however, was up to the challenge of entertaining two Aussies, one very German competent and the other totally incompetent. He opened a sparkling rose, produced a variety of olives and continued to cook his risotto while we talked about life, the universe and everything. During this time, his neighbour, Esther (we think her name was), joined us, as did, soon after, Caroline and her daughter Ricarda. It turned out that the “oven” being tested was not a cooking one but a wood-burning house-heating one! It had been a pretty cool day, so it got a good trial. Indeed it worked so well, they needed to open windows.

We had a wonderful night. The food was great – a vegetarian pea risotto with salad, followed by homemade stewed plums served with a vanilla-flavoured quark sauce (which Sue went easy on) – and so was the company. English was mostly spoken so Sue could join in, and we talked about politics, education, Berlin, family, and immigration (Esther is of Spanish origin). We expect to see Caroline and Ricarda, at least, before we leave.

Three-words

SUE: Conversation, Conviviality, Generosity
LEN: Big city life

and the stills…

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